Minister of National Defense Hulusi Akar spoke at the General Assembly of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, where the 2022 Budget Proposal of the Ministry of National Defense was discussed. Making a detailed presentation on the activities, Minister Akar made statements about the F-16 aircraft that Turkey requested from the USA. MSB Hulusi Akar, in her speech,
In the field of defense industry, while our work continues at full speed in order to reduce our dependence on foreign sources, we continue to supply some of our weapons, ammunition, equipment and material needs from abroad as a necessity. However, some allied countries; They refrain from selling the weapon systems we demand to our country for various excuses. As it is known, despite many attempts to meet our country's need for a Long-Range Regional Air and Missile Defense System, it has not been possible to procure these systems from NATO member countries. For this reason, the S-400 System has not been taken as a choice, but as a necessity. In case of need, all our preparations for the use of this system continue as planned. As for the F-35 project; Although we fulfilled all our responsibilities, our supply of F-400s was blocked on the pretext of S-35 purchases.
Turkish and US delegations met in Ankara on October 27, 2021, our views and requests for the repayment of our F-35 expenditures were conveyed to the USA, and it was agreed to meet in the USA at the beginning of 2022 to negotiate on the subject. In addition, our official request for the supply of F-16s and the modernization of our existing F-16 warplanes was conveyed to the USA within the framework of Foreign Military Sales. We think that the US administration will approach the issue positively. We follow the process and developments closely. If the US's stance is negative, Turkey will necessarily and naturally have to consider other options in order to ensure its security in the environment of threat it is in.
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